Sun tanning of the skin to a brown or light brown color is primarily done by the younger generations as an expression of healthy beauty or fashion and there are many people who want to be actively sun tanned. They apply a cosmetic on the whole body and expose the skin to intense sunlight. However, recently awareness of the importance of protecting the skin from ultraviolet light has risen and cosmetics have begun to contain an ultraviolet light absorber which absorbs ultraviolet light (wavelength 290-320 nm) known to cause blisters and erythema.
However, some ultraviolet light absorbers cannot exhibit their efficacy sufficiently although they have a high ultraviolet light absorption effect because the base agent can contain only a very small amount of them due to their very low solubility in solvents. Among them, Pongamia extract contains Pongamol which has a very strong ultraviolet light absorption effect and is expected to be useful as a ultraviolet light absorber (Japanese examined patent publication Tokko Hei 6-60092). However, its solubility is poor in all the base agents which are usually used as a base agent for cosmetics and therefore its application as it is in cosmetics and such has been very difficult.